Part I | Brief Summary

Category B | Principles

Topic 7 | Avoiding statism

A commitment to religious freedom can help avoid statism, the belief that all rights exist only after the state enacts rights. Both the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are grounded in the idea that certain fundamental rights are inherent and unalienable to the human person. The state does not create or bestow these rights; rather, it enacts laws to recognize, promote, and protect fundamental rights that people already possess by virtue of their being human. One of these unalienable constitutional and human rights is the right to freedom of religion.